


Those Rare Days

by TigerOfTheTundra



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Brothers bonding, Handplates, Mostly Fluff, Oneshot, Sibling Cuteness, based on a fancomic, layers upon layers of fandom, of a fancomic, skelebros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 22:38:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6302935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerOfTheTundra/pseuds/TigerOfTheTundra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things usually go the same, day in and day out, but sometimes a day goes differently than one would expect. Sometimes, people do things differently than one would expect</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Rare Days

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Handplates Fancomic- Not Today](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/183253) by http://arrt-jim-lad.tumblr.com/. 



> Based off the handplates au by http://zarla-s.tumblr.com/

It was one of those rare days where Sans woke first, opening his eyes a crack to the flicker of lab lights and his brother’s snore. For a moment, he sat and blinked out at the bare room, wondering if he could let himself drift back to sleep. He still felt tired. Had the lights just turned on? With Pap curled up against his ribs, he could almost, shifting to rest his forehead on his brother’s skull, dozing in the quiet of the morning. 

Soft footsteps tapped in the hall, and Sans instantaneously woke. He didn’t move, didn’t do anything that would wake Papyrus up. The knot of his soul in his chest only felt tighter, like he could somehow anchor him and his brother in place with the tension of his fear. He hated this part of the morning. He didn’t want to look for the coming footsteps, didn’t want to even acknowledge them, but he couldn’t look away from the door. The doctor, the doctor was coming, step step step, and he couldn’t look away.

When the tall skeleton came into view, he stopped. Sans felt like every bone in his body had turned to lead, but he hugged Papyrus tighter. The doctor casually perused his clipboard, which one did he need, which thing did he want to take out of the little box, and Sans just hugged his brother and stared. Every morning, this happened, except usually Papyrus had woken up before him. Usually they waited together, knowing one of them would leave, knowing—

The doctor gave Sans and Papyrus one last look, and turned away toward the lab, the tap tap tap of his shoes fading. Sans’ arms were shaking, and he felt limp. They’d gotten a pass, maybe, maybe today… Slowly, he rested his head on his brother’s. He felt so tired.

“BROTHER…?” Pap’s sleepy voice echoed funny in his hearing, with their skulls pressed together. Sans felt his grin relax into something warmer as he sat back to let his brother get up. Papyrus stretched and yawned, and carefully set aside the fluff critter they’d made. Then he turned to study Sans with a suspicious look. “DID YOU WAKE UP BEFORE ME?” he asked.

“yup,” Sans said. “was wondering when you’d decide to get up.” He smirked and gave his own satisfying stretch, now that he could sit up a bit more. That caused one of his joints to let out a loud pop, making Papyrus jump and glare at him.

“WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY?” In return, Sans just stretched the other way, making his other shoulder pop. “OH MY GOD, WHY DO YOU DO THIS?” Papyrus flung up his hands in frustration. Before either could continue, the footsteps started back down the hall, tap, tap. They froze. The doctor had just been waiting, he hadn’t let them off the hook for the day. He’d just been lying in wait, and now he heard him, and he was coming, he was coming, and Papyrus grabbed Sans hand, they both curled closer and looked away, pretending, pretending.

The footsteps stopped. Sans snuck a peek, but he didn’t see the doorway disappear. For a long moment, almost too long to hold a breath, the doctor stood in the doorway, watching them. Then he continued down the hallway, tap, tap, tap, and Sans let his head collapse into his arms. Papyrus kept staring down as far the hall as he could see, craning his neck to keep watching.

“HE… JUST WALKED PAST US?” Pap leaned forward a bit. “IS HE NOT… IS…” The footsteps came again, but the doctor simply walked past their cell, a few books in his arms. He didn’t even look in this time. Sans let out a relieved breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, he didn’t want to hope. But…

“BROTHER, HE’S NOT GOING TO TAKE EITHER OF US TODAY!” Papyrus grabbed his arms, holding him and beaming. “HE’S LETTING US BE, HE’S, HE’S NOT—!”

“yeh, looks like it…” All Sans’ bones were rattling slightly, it seemed. And Pap’s smile wavered, as he looked from them to the doorway and beyond. “he, uh, came by while you were asleep, and didn’t do nothin.” Maybe Pap was right about this one…

“WOWIE…” Papyrus turned to sit with his back against the wall, and picked up the fluff critter. “TODAY IS A DAY OF EVERYTHING HAPPENING BACKWARDS,” he declared. “YOU WOKE UP EARLY, EVEN EARLIER THAN I, AND HE IS NOT GOING TO TAKE EITHER OF US TODAY! THEREFORE, IT IS A DAY OF THINGS THAT DON’T NORMALLY HAPPEN, HAPPENING.”

“no kidding,” Sans said and leaned his head against Pap’s arm. “maybe today you’ll be the one makin the bad jokes.”

“NO, I HAVE A BETTER ONE!” He wriggled a bit to look at Sans more straight on. “IN HONOR OF TODAY’S BACKWARDSNESS, YOU SHOULD TALK AS LOUDLY AS YOU CAN. AND I… I’LL TALK AS QUIETLY AS I CAN.” It wasn’t that quiet, and Sans had to chuckle a bit. “GO ON, SEE HOW LOUD YOU CAN BE!” Even Papyrus’ whisper carried through most of the cell.

“nah bro, i don’t wanna talk too loud.” Sans shrugged. “’sides, I like your talking the way it is.”

“REALLY?” Papyrus beamed; he had to know that already. Sans had said it before, hadn’t he? “YOU DON’T THINK IM TOO LOUD?”

“you’re the perfect loudness,” Sans said, with a reassuring squeeze to his brother’s hand. Pap’s voice, bright and enthusiastic and loud, was the best sound on the planet. If Sans could have it so, he’d get to hear Papyrus talk like this all the time, for the rest of eternity. Well, maybe with a few times when Papyrus yelled at him for a joke. That was kind of funny too. Just to prove it, Sans rolled his neck, and a satisfying pop sound rang out.

“UGH, WHY DO YOU DO THIS?” Papyrus groaned, but the scrunch of happy amusement stayed around the corners of his eyes. 

Sans grinned. “just for you, bro.” He almost laughed, too, and Papyrus shook his head.

“OH!” Pap sat up. “OF COURSE! BROTHER,” he said, posing even more grandly than before, “IN HONOR OF TODAY, SINCE YOU HAVE ALREADY ACTED YOUR PART, I WILL NOW NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT YOU MAKING AWFUL JOKES OR ANNOYING NOISES LIKE THAT, FOR THE REST OF THE DAY, AT ALL. THERE, NOW WE’VE ALL DONE SOMETHING BACKWARDS THAN NORMAL FOR TODAY!”

“hey, that’s a good one,” Sans agreed. “all day?” He flexed his fingers with a series of crackles, and Papyrus glared.

“YES. ALL DAY.” With a fixed look, Papyrus turned away and began fiddling with their little toy critter, tucking in the stray bits of fluff here and there. Sans watched idly, letting himself drift off a little as Pap repaired a partially pulled-apart ear. His brother was pretty good at making the fluff hold together. Better than him, at the very least. 

“well, since i got my backwards-ness in early, i think im gonna take a nap.” He stretched, though not enough to make his shoulders pop, and leaned back against Papyrus. “wanna be well-rested for the rest of the day, right?”

“YOU’RE GOING BACK TO SLEEP?” Papyrus asked, but he paused and looked thoughtful. “THAT COULD BE ANOTHER BACKWARDS THING WE DO TODAY. WE SLEEP IN THE DAY! EXCEPT, I’M NOT VERY TIRED RIGHT NOW, AND… WELL YOU COULD SLEEP…” He twisted his hands together, and seemed to try not to look over at Sans. Sans, on his part, turned away and rubbed his head.

“nah, im not too tired either.” He rubbed the edge of his eyesocket, hoping he didn’t look too tired at least. “we can find other ways to do things backwards.”

“OF COURSE WE CAN!” Papyrus beamed down at him before he launched into a stream of ideas. Sans laughed a bit at some, nodded along with others, not much for ideas himself. The rest of the lab was quiet, all day. They didn’t take much notice of it. It was one of those rare days.

**Author's Note:**

> arrt-jim-lad drew the opening scene as a comic, and I wanted to write it out, just to get a feel of that moment, and... more happened. Fluff in the handplates story. Is it possible? Apparently
> 
> I just want these babies to be happy and safe, ok?
> 
> Sans popping his joints to bug Papyrus was inspired by this comic: http://theslowesthnery.tumblr.com/post/141159862333/importat-question-which-skelebro-cracks-their, go check it out, this artist has a super cute art style and this comic is also perfect


End file.
